


The Red Strokes

by Sparesmom



Series: The Anniversary Series [2]
Category: Hart to Hart
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 05:23:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20688197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparesmom/pseuds/Sparesmom
Summary: Jennifer and Jonathan celebrate their anniversary and help a friend in trouble. The song is The Red Strokes by Garth Brooks





	The Red Strokes

**Author's Note:**

> The Anniversary Series is a non-linear series of stories set around Jonathan and Jennifer's wedding anniversaries. Each story is a stand-alone and they can be read in any order.

"Many of you were here last year when I sang a song to Jonathan for our anniversary. Well, he insisted on a song this year as well. Last year his gift to me was a very special painting. Darling, here is my painting for you." Jennifer nodded at the orchestra and took a deep breath. 

"Moonlight on canvas, midnight and wine  
two shadows starting to softly combine  
The picture they're painting is one of the heart  
And to those who have seen it  
it's a true work of art  
Oh, the red strokes, passions uncaged  
thundering moments of tenderness rage  
Oh the red strokes, tempered and strong  
burning the night like the dawn  
Steam on the window, salt in a kiss  
two hearts have never pounded like this  
Inspired by a vision  
that they can't command  
erasing the borders  
with each brush of a hand  
Oh, the red strokes, passions uncaged  
Thundering moments of tenderness rage  
Oh, the red strokes, fearlessly drawn  
burning the night like the dawn  
The blues will be blue and the jealousies green  
but when love picks its shade  
it demands to be seen  
Oh, the red strokes, passions uncaged  
Thundering moments of tenderness rage  
Oh, the red strokes, fearlessly drawn  
burning the night like the dawn  
Steam on a window, salt in a kiss  
two hearts have never pounded like this

Happy anniversary, Darling."

The applause was loud in the ballroom Jonathan had reserved for the anniversary party this year. Jennifer wouldn't tell him what she planned to sing but he pulled out all the stops, booking the Legacy Ballroom and an orchestra to accompany her and provide music for dancing. 

The room was filled with men in either black tie or Naval uniforms, the ladies in elegant ballgowns. Jennifer's peach-colored chiffon stood out among the sea of mostly black dresses, its strapless bodice thickly paved with crystals. Around her neck, she wore his gift to her this year, a necklace of perfectly matched, cultured pearls with a large, antique, cushion-cut diamond enhancer lying against her sternum, its banked fire flashing and throwing sparks as she moved.

The orchestra had played during the cocktail hour, and then, once Jennifer's song was through, they played unobtrusively throughout the dinner service as the waiters passed grilled duck breast and shrimp skewers. At nine the orchestra played the intro to their final song, the Sweetheart's Dance, just for the Harts alone. Jonathan led her onto the dance floor to the first strains of Once Upon A Dream. After he had waltzed her around and around for about two minutes alone the deejay called for all the married couples to join them on the dance floor. When the last notes faded the deejay took over to provide plenty of dance music. They danced the evening away, Jennifer was twirled around the floor with seemingly every man at the party while Jonathan was much in demand as a competent partner, he knew how to make even the most amateur dancer feel like the belle of the ball. 

"I need to be alone with you." He told Jennifer when they finally had the chance to dance together again to a recording of the Glenn Miller Orchestra's performance of Sunrise Serenade. "That was quite a song you chose. I felt like I was making love to you through the whole thing." 

"That was the idea." She smiled radiantly as he waltzed her into a dip and then kissed her soundly on the way back up.

"I think every man in here had the same thought."

"Then maybe some of their wives will get as lucky as I'm going to get tonight."

"What makes you so sure you are going to get lucky tonight?" His voice was a sensual growl that traveled from her ears straight to all the pleasure centers in her brain and she shivered delicately in his arms.

"Experience," she answered tartly. "I can see it in your eyes. Right now you are wondering if we can slip away quietly like we did at our wedding reception. It's only too bad we have such a long ride home. I don't think Max is going to want to leave his poker game with the waitstaff quite so early."

"It might be the best thing for him, before he loses all his money to them. Besides, it's not early Darling, it's past midnight. It's time for the carriage to turn back into a pumpkin."

"That's Cinderella. Once Upon A Dream is from Sleeping Beauty."

"Well, it's time I got my Beauty home and into bed."

"That was the general idea."

They cuddled in the backseat as Max piloted the big car across the 101 and then South on the 405. They could never drive the 405 without remembering the day they had found Freeway on the ramp. He was just a filthy bundle of fur but Jennifer had insisted they stop and rescue the little pup. Tonight, she had her arms around Jonathan's neck, her fingers in his hair and she had drunk enough champagne toasts that she was feeling no pain. 

The sticky August heat inland became cooler and they could smell the salt air coming off the ocean as Max turned onto Sunset Boulevard then up into the canyon. At this hour of the morning, there was almost no traffic and they made it home in about 35 minutes. Jonathan went to bring up a couple of brandies for a nightcap while Jennifer slipped upstairs to change into something more comfortable. 

"Why, Mr. Hart, are you trying to take advantage of me?" She asked when he walked into the bedroom with two crystal snifters of Remy Martin XO.  


"I rather thought it was the other way around." He told her, clinking his balloon glass to hers. "After that song choice tonight I suspect you have designs on my virtue."

"I don't want your virtue Darling, it's your vice I'm interested in," Jennifer looked delicious in a long, black silk nightgown that swirled around her ankles much the same as her ballgown had earlier. For him, dancing with her was always like an extension of their foreplay. After an evening of holding her close, or even watching her dance with others, seeing the way her dancer's body moved, he could hardly wait to be alone with her. She considered herself lucky that she had married a man who loved to dance, but before her, he hadn't cared about dancing at all. 

Jennifer had studied ballet and modern dance right up through college, and still took classes occasionally. The night they met he had taken her to the various night clubs of London and they danced the night away then too. He could waltz and foxtrot passably thanks to Max's insistence that he learn the skills expected of a gentleman, but he had never loved it until he danced with Jennifer. During their very brief engagement, he had taken a crash course in dancing, practicing every evening in order to keep up with her. 

Holding her tonight, feeling the heat from her skin radiating through the thin silk of her negligee and remembering how beautiful she looked singing just for him as though the ballroom full of people didn't exist, he felt again the enormity of his love for her. Jennifer had improved his life in every way, he would give her the sun and stars if she asked, dancing was such a simple request. 

"What was that you sang, about salt in a kiss?" He asked her, kissing that spot on her throat that always made her crazy. She threw her head back, encouraging his exploration of her soft skin before leading him to their big bed. She had her favorite sheets on the bed, the royal blue ones that flattered her pale, freckled skin, made of pure mulberry silk that was just as smooth and soft as satin but breathed so much better. 

On these hot, sticky summer nights the lightweight silk made sleeping bearable. They could leave the air conditioning turned off and throw the big windows open to the evening breezes. The smells of night-blooming jasmine and moonflowers drifted in with the sounds of the coyotes calling to each other in the canyon. Very rarely, they would hear the distant echo of a wolf howling, the eerie sound always filling Jennifer with a kind of beautiful sadness she could never put into words. 

Jonathan paused a split second from entering her, her legs wrapped around his hips, her body slick and aching for him, he saw her again like it was the first time. He was looking into her eyes as he moved in her with exquisite, agonizing slowness. Her pupils dilated and her breath stopped for a heartbeat when he, at last, filled her completely. His name on her lips was a plea as he moved back out with the same slow control until her body responded to him from that place beyond words, Her nails clawed at his back, her heels a drumbeat on his thighs, her muscles holding him tightly within her until he let go as well, filling her with everything that words could never convey.

When he collapsed beside her, both of them breathing hard, she turned with him to hold him inside her a little longer. He was caught in her eyes just as surely as within her body. She was the center of his universe, the sun that kept everything spinning in rhythm. It sounded so corny even in his own mind to say that she completed him but that was exactly what she did. She complimented him, her strengths balancing his weaknesses, as he did for her. They fit together so perfectly that nothing could ever come between them or break them apart.

Chapter Two

"Jennifer? Can you come right away? I need your help." Beth sounded frantic and Jennifer looked blearily across Jonathan's body at the clock. 9:15. It had been nearly one-thirty when she and Jonathan had gotten in last night. And after three when they, at last, fell asleep in each other's arms. Between the many, many champagne toasts and the brandy they had shared at home, it felt like the party was still going on inside her head.

"Of course, Beth. What's wrong?"

"It's Gianna. I think she's been kidnapped."

"We'll be there in an hour." Jennifer hung up the phone and shook Jonathan awake. They both dressed quickly and told Max they would be back later. The drive to Sherman Oaks took thirty minutes and then they were pulling through Beth and Cary's gate, parking behind Beth's sporty red SUV.

"All right Beth. Why do you think something has happened to Gianna?" Jonathan asked when they had been shown into the Aldridge's living room.

"We got a phone call. It was from her phone, but it was a man. He said they have Gianna. Not to call the police, and they want five million dollars transferred to a numbered account at Fidelity Bank of the Bahamas by four p.m. or they will kill her." Cary answered for his wife. He was much calmer than Beth. "What do you think, Jonathan? Should I pay it?"

"We're not there yet. Let's start with the obvious. Did you call the school to see if Gianna is there? Maybe it's just a really bad prank." Jonathan spoke seriously, his mind racing. He and Cary had been friends since college. Jonathan had been the best man at his wedding, and he had a photo in his study of Jennifer dancing with a two-year-old Gianna at their own anniversary party five years later. 

"I called the school," Beth spoke up although her voice shook. "They said she never arrived." 

"Was she driving?" Jennifer asked suddenly. "OnStar should be able to track her car." Gianna had been so excited to get her license just a few months ago, Beth and Cary had given her a little Chevy Volt as a birthday gift.

"No, she rode in with her friend Molly. I've already checked, she didn't make it to school either and her car wasn't equipped with a tracking device. Her parents are on their way over." Beth broke down in tears, Jennifer moving swiftly to hold the sobbing woman. She couldn't imagine what Beth must be going through. The Aldridges had married older, much as she and Jonathan had, but unlike the Harts, Beth and Cary had been blessed with a child. Gianna was the light of their lives.

Just then there was another knock at the door and the housekeeper ushered in a younger couple. Chris and Maggie Malone were in their early thirties and despite living in Sherman Oaks they clearly were not as well off as the Aldridges. Unfortunately, they knew as well as Jonathan did what that likely meant if Gianna had truly been kidnapped. Molly was collateral damage, she had no value as a hostage, therefore a kidnapper would have little reason to keep her alive.

"Why not check Gianna's GPS history? It might tell us something about where she has been recently." Jonathan suggested. The other two men followed him out to the garage where Gianna's little blue convertible was plugged in. Cary activated the touchscreen display and called up her GPS history. It showed her most frequently visiting the Westfield Mall with school in a distant second place. 

Chris Malone suggested driving over to the mall to see if anyone remembered the girls or saw anything suspicious recently but Jonathan took him aside and asked him to stay and help Cary see to the women. Privately he thought that canvassing the mall might be a good idea but he didn't want to risk Chris accidentally finding his own daughter's body. He and Jennifer could investigate the mall on their own.

"Cary, you stay by the phone and call me immediately if you hear anything, anything at all. And Chris, why don't you and the ladies call around to the girl's friends and see if they know anything. Jennifer and I will check the mall and around the high school." Gianna and Molly attended Campbell Hall in Laurel Canyon where they were both starting their junior year.

The mall had only been open for an hour or so when he and Jennifer started asking around, showing pictures of both girls. Several employees recalled seeing the girls around at various times, especially in the food court but no one could really identify when they had last seen them with any certainty. Jonathan and Jennifer were in the security office trying to convince the on-duty Captain to let them review security footage to see if there had been anyone following the girls recently when Jonathan's cell phone chirped.

"Abe ... What? When? We're on our way now. I'll call you when we find out anything." He pocketed his phone and turned to the security officer. "Where is 2bella?"

"That's in the east wing, on the first floor, it's that way." He pointed down the left side of the huge space and Jonathan took off at a run, Jennifer hot on his heels. "Gianna's credit card was just used at a store called 2bella a few minutes ago. I had Abe flag her card when I asked him to track her cell phone. Whoever has her card might still be in the area if we can get there fast enough." He panted, threading his way past early shoppers and small clots of track-suit-clad mall walkers. 

The clerk in the boutique remembered a group of high school aged girls who all seemed to be together but couldn't specify if Gianna or Molly had been part of the group. She did recall that they were talking about going to Sephora next setting Jonathan and Jennifer off running again. Sure enough, Sephora was filled with teens, one of whom was very familiar.

"Uncle Jonathan, what are you doing here?" Gianna asked him as he tried to catch his breath. Jennifer was already dialing her phone as soon as she spotted Molly Malone in the crowd as well.

"Cary, we've got them. They are safe. Yes, both of them. We don't have any information yet. We'll be headed back to you in a few minutes." She hung up the phone and turned her attention back to the girls.

"We just decided to skip today, we didn't have any important classes, it's just review from last year. And I lost my phone somewhere. What's the big deal? I can't believe my dad sent you after me." Gianna looked embarrassed being singled out and Jennifer felt bad for her but Jonathan took the two girls aside for a quiet conversation after which both girls looked worried and quickly gathered their bags and sprinted towards the exit. 

"They are heading straight back to Cary's house. I told Molly her parents are waiting there as well. I'd better call and let them know the girls are safe ..."

"I already did," Jennifer interrupted him. "But what happened?"

"Thank you, Darling." They both began to move towards the exit as well. "It seems the whole pep squad decided to ditch their morning classes and meet here for some retail team building. They all met up in the food court and it was half an hour before Gianna noticed her phone was missing."

"Just this once I wish she was a normal teenager obsessed with her phone, it might have saved a lot of worry if she had noticed it sooner."  
Jennifer commented.

"I don't think so, Darling. And I don't think Gianna lost her phone. It's too coincidental to think that a random stranger finds her phone and decides to stage a fake kidnapping AND just happens to call the wealthiest parents in the school. Someone knew what the girls were planning and took advantage of the circumstances. Will you drive back to Cary and Beth's, please? I need to speak to Abe again." Jonathan's brow was furrowed as he scrolled through his contacts.

She was horrified by the idea that someone would be so cruel as to play a prank of this magnitude on her friends. The drive back to the Aldridge estate was a quiet one as Jonathan had a cryptic conversation with Hart Industries head of cybersecurity, Abe Solomon. She was very happy to see the girls climbing out of Molly's white Jeep in front of the Aldridge's house when she pulled up to the gate. All four parents came spilling through the front door crying happier tears now and hugging the girls. 

The Malones, in particular, couldn't seem to let go of their daughter, standing in a close huddle, rocking back and forth and crying on each other. Jennifer could empathize with the special fear they must have been grappling with. Cary and Beth had known that their daughter was most likely alive and unharmed, the Malone's didn't even have that comfort. Jonathan asked that all of the adults meet him in the living room when they were ready and led Jennifer inside. 

She would not normally presume to make requests of someone else's staff but today she sought out Beth's housekeeper, Ingrid, and asked her to make some strong coffee and sandwiches for everyone. She couldn't help but notice that Ingrid's eyes were red too. She had been the Aldridge's housekeeper since before Gianna was born and she had been praying for The Virgin to intercede and bring the girls home safe. Now she promised to have lunch on the table in half an hour and Jennifer returned to find the adults clustered in the living room listening to Jonathan explain his theory.

"I don't think any of this was a coincidence. I believe someone knew that the girls were planning to skip school and followed them to the mall. I think they used the bustle of the group as cover to steal Gianna's phone and make that call to Beth."

"But Jonathan, if that were true then whoever it was would have to know what I am worth. Why ask for so little?" Carrington Kendrick Aldridge had taken a modest hundred million dollar inheritance and turned it into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate of air and sea shipping companies.

"Because their plan depended on you paying quickly. They needed to ask for an amount you could put together within a couple of hours. The longer it took the more chance there was that you would discover they didn't actually have Gianna, just her phone. The whole scheme would fall apart if she simply borrowed a friend's phone and called home for any reason. 

I have asked my corporate investigator to find me the location of Gianna's phone. The supposed kidnapper probably doesn't know Gianna is home. I'd like to play this out. Let him think that you are going to pay, that you are sick with worry over her safety. Drag it out as long as you can, give Abe time to do what he does."

"Look, Jonathan, I'd like to catch the guy too, frankly I'd like to pummel his face into the pavement, but Gianna is home safe and the phone is easily replaceable. Why not just leave it at that?" Cary asked him.

"Because if he is desperate enough to try a stunt like this he may not give up so easily. And next time he might not be bluffing. I don't think Gianna will really be out of danger until we figure out who it is and stop them for good."

"You're right of course. I hadn't thought about that. All right, Jonathan. We'll play this your way. Tell us what you need us to do." Cary spoke but the others nodded their agreement. 

"For now just keep on as you have been. Call Gianna's phone and just keep them talking as long as you can. Ask to talk to Gianna, but don't push too hard when he refuses. Maybe talk about how distraught her mother is. Anything to keep the line open while Abe does what he needs to."

"Jonathan, why not just use one of those 'find your friends' apps? Gianna must have one, all the kids do." Jennifer asked him. "It will tell you where the phone is in just a few seconds." 

"Abe will be able to get a much more precise location, he only needs to phone to be active for a minute or so and he can pinpoint the location to within a few feet." He nodded at Cary who dialed his daughter's phone number and performed as Jonathan suggested. He wasn't able to keep the faux kidnapper on the line for more than a minute but it was enough. Jonathan's phone chirped again and Abe was able to provide him with an address.

Jonathan tried to convince Cary and Chris Malone to remain behind but they would not hear of it so he had to settle for asking the police to meet them there. Abe's information led them to a house about fifteen minutes from the Aldridge home in another upscale neighborhood. Unlike the homes surrounding it however, this house appeared to have fallen on hard times. The lawn was overgrown and turning brown in patches, and there were cobwebs accumulating in the corners of the wide porch. When Jonathan rang the bell they heard the sound of footsteps and then the door was opened by a teenage girl in a Campbell Hall school uniform with the inevitable Airpods in her ears. Cary introduced himself and asked if her parents were home.

"Da-ad, it's some guy for you. I'll be in the kitchen if you ever get ready to take me to school." Just as she bounced out of the room a man came downstairs, preoccupied with shuffling through a stack of letters in his hand. When he glanced up and spotted the three men in his foyer he looked panicked and tried to bolt past them for the door. The crunching sound of his nose breaking seemed very loud when Cary punched him just as Jonathan launched himself into a flying tackle at his midsection. The man went down in a tangle of arms and legs and made no attempt to get up again.

"Why did you do it?" Cary shouted at him.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about. How did you get in here?" The fear in his eyes gave him away and Cary took out his phone. He punched the redial button and the unmistakable bubblegum sound of Taylor Swift came from the man's pocket. Chris grabbed him roughly and pulled a bedazzled blue cellphone from his pocket just as the police knocked at the front door. 

David Standish became very chatty once the handcuffs were on. He had made some bad stock investments recently and was being foreclosed on by his creditors. His daughter Alecia was on the cheerleading team with Gianna and Molly. When he overheard the plan to ditch school he saw an opportunity to get back on his feet. This morning he pretended to 'catch' Alecia and grounded her so she couldn't reveal him then it was a simple matter of getting close to the oblivious group of girls at the food court and stealing Gianna's phone when she put it down. He figured that since he asked for so little Cary would just pay him quickly and quietly rather than risk Gianna's safety.

He claimed it wasn't really a crime since he didn't actually kidnap Gianna and was surprised when Officer Benton informed him that he did, in fact, commit attempted felony extortion as well as theft of the cell phone. Cary gave a disgusted snort when David started pleading for mercy on behalf of his family and begged him not to press charges. Chris coldly informed him that he was pressing charges even if Cary didn't and he should be grateful they weren't suing him for intentional infliction of emotional distress. That was the last they heard from Mr. Standish as the cops led him away. They returned to the Aldridge estate where Jonathan and Chris collected their respective women and left, the ladies promising to make plans to meet for lunch next week. 

At home, Jennifer suggested a soak in the hot tub since they left in such a hurry this morning. The spa was a fairly new addition. After fire destroyed the house in '94 they had made a few upgrades to the rebuild that it had been needing, including enlarging the small balcony off of the master bedroom and which now sported the jacuzzi set into the deck and a couple of comfortable chaises for sitting outside and enjoying the balmy southern California weather. With fifty acres of empty canyon wrapped around the house, they were free to forego swimwear, as they were doing now.

"To anniversaries." Jonathan raised his wine glass, "May they never get boring."

"That's what I love about you, Darling. I meet such interesting people. I think my next husband will be a nice, boring banker. Or an accountant."

"Your next husband? Darling, you could never leave me, you love me. You can't live without me. You will never have this much fun with anyone else."

"Jonathan?"

"Yes, Darling."

"Move your foot."

"You love me. You know you love me. I know you know you love me."

"All right, Darling. I love you. Now, would you rub my back for a minute please." She turned to rest her arms on the deck as Jonathan crossed the small space between them and positioned himself behind her. Her sleek blowout was completely undone in the steam and the tendrils that escaped her hair tie clung to her neck in damp curls that reminded him of how sweetly tousled she looked when they made love. 

She knew what he was thinking by the way his hands felt on her back, one minute kneading the knots from her neck and the next lightly running his fingers down her spine. She shifted slightly, moving closer to him and wedging him firmly against her butt, smiling as she felt the sudden jump in his attention. His gentle stroking continued along her sides, tracing an hourglass under the water, making her sigh and lay her head back onto his shoulder. 

"What were we talking about?" Her voice was already husky and sexy sounding and he could feel her moving against him. The bubbles added a new dimension to their playful banter. 

"How much you love me, how you could never, ever leave me." He reminded her, nudging even closer against her.

"I could leave you if I wanted to." She insisted, even as she pressed back against him, her voice becoming ever more ragged in the flow of bubbles from the jets. It was an old routine between them. He could talk her into anything because she was helpless when he turned the full wattage of his seduction on her. But there was always a moment of apogee, when he became helpless in the face of her touch. If she was powerless to resist his words, he was just as paralyzed by her caress. 

The bathrobes draped over the nearest chaise were still warm from the late afternoon sun when Jonathan rose out of the jacuzzi and held the thick white terry out for her to step into. And when she went into her dressing room to select a negligee she found one already laid out on the blue velvet upholstery of her slipper chair.

"How does he do that?" She mused under her breath. Jonathan had been with her all afternoon and yet here was one of her favorite negligees all ready for her to slip into. She was certain this was one task he would not entrust to Max, and yet how else could he have accomplished it?

"Magic." She had been so deep in thought she hadn't noticed him approach and she jumped at his voice. 

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said 'magic'. You were wondering how I got your gown laid out without you noticing." He smirked at her look of confusion and held the garment in question out for her slip on. He was already wearing a pair of soft pajama pants in white silk with black piping trim. His favorite gold chain glinting at her from its nest in his chest hair. She was so glad he had never gone in for the current fad of waxing his chest. Smooth, hairless chests might be trendy but she had always found his hair to be sexy. She loved the rough feel of it under her fingers when they made love, the way he responded so quickly when she toyed with it through his open collars, and especially how the gold coin he wore on a chain looked resting in the thick brown nest.

The coin had been a gift from her on their first Christmas together, after he had commented about having a lucky penny growing up in the orphanage. He had immediately taken the coin to the jewelers and had it strung on a chain so he could always have it close to his heart. In all the years they had been married he had never taken it off and seeing it there still moved her. 

The gown he had chosen for tonight matched his pants, of course, he frequently chose his own clothing to complement hers. She was wearing the same white silk but hers was styled like a traditional cheongsam, the formal high neck Chinese dress slit high up both sides. It was inked in black with watercolor peonies and a vertical line of calligraphy that translated to 'When I met you the sky burned, and so did I'. He had commissioned an artist to paint it especially for her the year she turned 50. That had been a difficult birthday for her since menopause had her questioning her sexuality and whether she was still desirable to him. The gown made her feel beautiful and sexy and very, very cherished.

"It's not the gown," she had told him that night with happy tears in her eyes. "It's how you see me." It still remained one of her favorite gifts. The fabric hugged her slender body and whispered against her skin.

"I want to give you all of the beautiful love words you deserve but your eyes steal all of my words away." He told her now. 

"Jonathan, you always say the sweetest things. I wish that I had taken the time to write down all of the beautiful things you tell me. If I had put them all in a book it would be a runaway bestseller. Finally, a definitive primer on how to understand the heart of a woman. But I never wrote them down and my only excuse is that I was too busy being in love with you." 

The big California king was an island unto itself when they met in the middle of it. Jonathan fingered the satin frogs that closed her gown from shoulder to hip, slipping them free one by one. Jennifer could feel the heat from his hands searing her skin. Tiny blooms of heat in every brush of his fingertips that spread like ripples on the water. The covers moved slightly and he glanced down to see Freeway squirming out from the blankets beside her.

"Freeway, out. Scat now." He shooed the little dog off the bed and put him out. "Go find Max now, run along." His tone was loving but firm. He sounded like he was speaking to a naughty child and Freeway obeyed much like a child who knows there is no point in protesting any further. 

"Now, where were we?" He asked as soon as he returned to the big bed. "Oh yes, I remember. I believe I was right about here." His hands returned to the last couple of knots that held the fabric closed against her skin. "I love this negligee, Darling but it hides something I desperately need to get to." Her laughter was sweet and musical as he finally opened the last frog and the nightgown fell open. "Your neck." He added with a grin, kissing the hollow spot he revealed.

"Darling, you're like a vampire. I should call you Count Dracula the way you are always biting my neck." 

"You love it. It's no use denying it now. It's far too late for that." He wasn't wrong. His lips on her throat never failed to excite her. "I'm trying to make up for all the years I should have been kissing you but I just hadn't met you yet."

"I just want to feel your touch, your love. In your arms I am home." Jennifer wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him right up against her body. After his slow seduction in the hot tub, she was ready for him. She didn't want to wait any longer to have him inside her and she wrapped her long legs around his thighs to urge him forward. 

"I want to be as close to you as I can be. It's not just the way you touch me, I love the way you say my name, the way you make me believe in forevers. I never wanted to be helpless until you. Every day I willingly hand you the ability to destroy me and every day you show me why I am right to trust you. My life has changed for the better because I love you" Jennifer spoke simply but her words were all the more eloquent for her quiet delivery. 

"You have quite the way with beautiful words as well, Mrs. Hart. Being with you is special because I don't have to censor myself. I can say all of the ridiculously over the top things in my heart and know you won't think less of me." 

"We really are completely over the top, aren't we? But I wouldn't want it any other way"

"We are. I love these times with you, when the whole world just fades away and all my walls come down. You speak directly to my heart." He kissed her again, long and slow and he was rewarded when he felt her tongue probing delicately, reaching out to sweep across his lower lip. He could taste the rich wine they had shared in the spa as well as a hint of her peppermint toothpaste. The setting sun cast red lines in the quiet room as their shadows merged into one. 

They moved together again like thousands of times before. Jennifer loved the way his five o'clock shadow rasped across her skin. Jonathan loved the sound of his name, spoken like a prayer, on her lips. And the way her kisses tasted like sunshine. 

"E poi, poi ci son io che in te vorrei semplicemente." Jonathan loved the way her voice sounded, low and sexy when she spoke love words in Italian. Or French, or Spanish, or any of the half-dozen languages she spoke. He waited now, knowing she would translate for him. "And then, then there is me who would simply lose myself in you."

"Sometimes I look at you and wonder how I got to be so damn lucky." He told her. His hands were everywhere on her body, moving over her breasts, through her hair, stroking her arms. His weight on her as familiar to her as her own skin. She tugged lightly on his chest hair, fastening her lips around each of his nipples in turn, making him cry out her name as he spilled himself inside her. 

The late sun painted her body in wide strokes of red and dark shadowed places. Now it was his mouth that hovered over her breast and she arched her back up to him but he remained frustratingly out of reach. 

"Don't tease me, Jonathan, I need you."

"Tell me." He demanded, his breath a torment on her skin, and a rush of heat flooding her body.

"Kiss me." She pleaded. "Touch me, make my world go black." His hand drifted lower, finding the secret heart of her and stroking softly. He kissed her hard cinnamon-colored nipples, first one then the other, until her breath grew harsh and ragged. 

"Not yet." He whispered against her ear. Her body was primed and ready for him and it took only a slight shift to slip inside her again. Her heat was overwhelming as she trembled beneath him and he held himself up with one arm, keeping the other seated firmly between them, pressing against her in time with his movement inside her. 

"Not yet," he whispered again. Her body shook with need and he could see that she was nearly at the end of her control. He withdrew almost all the way from her. "Now." He growled in her ear, driving deeply into her and quickly lowering his head to feast again on her swollen nipples. Her screams echoed in the room and a small covey of songbirds in the garden took flight. As her body convulsed she gripped him tightly and he poured himself into her for a second time. 

He held her close as her quakes gradually subsided and her racing heart calmed. Thick tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she breathed great gulping sobs in his arms. Her head was thrown back, his arm holding her close, comforting and soothing her as only he could. He kissed her gently. It was perfect, delightful, as she tangled her tongue with his. It was so soft and gentle and he calmed her soul as he quieted her body. Tenderly, with the softest of touches.

"I love you, Darling."


End file.
